file photo Boyd Loving
Manager’s ouster cost Ridgewood $82,538, village clerk says
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 Last updated: Thursday September 19, 2013, 12:58 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — The village paid more than $82,000 in severance to its former manager, Manager Ken Gabbert, whom the council voted to dismiss in August, the interim manager confirmed at a public meeting on Wednesday night.
Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh — who voted with Councilman Thomas Riche against a final resolution to remove Gabbert — asked the interim manager, Village Clerk Heather Mailander, what Gabbert’s dismissal had cost the village.
Mailander said Gabbert received three months’ salary — or $46,250 — as well as 250 accrued vacation days valued at $36,288, for a total payout of $82,538.
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When are governments going to stop employees from accumulating all this time it should be use it or loose it
Writer #1, point well taken, most employers now limit the amount of vacation days they are allow to be carried over.
Most do allow their unused sick days to accumulate many employees do take sick days as a perhaps as a personal day ….
A fair review of all these might be timely……….. Dom
why doesn’t mrs walsh care what it cost the village to HAVE him as the manager?
The mayor wanted this, Walsh was not a part of the witch hunt. Actually it was the mayor and his bobbleheads.
How does a person get 250 sick days in about 4 years? The average employee works about 225 days including vacation and holidays. While I don’t blame Gabbert for accepting such a cushy benefit package, it’s another example of government spending gone amok.
It is going to cost us way more than this in the long run.
250 accrued vacation days????????
How does someone accrue 250 vacation days in such a small amount of time?
I work for the federal government. We are allowed to carry forward only 240 hours of vacation each year. In other words, you cannot start the new year with more than 240 hours banked; it’s use or lose come December 31. Federal employees hired after 1985 do NOT receive a payout for any unused sick time when they leave or retire. It has always been my believe that sick days are to be used when you are sick . . . they are not a funding source for retirement.
During his four years of service Gabbert accumulated 250 UN– USED vacation days !This is over 12 weeks per year of UN– USED vacation. Since I assume he took at least some vacation days during this time the question is how much vacation was he entitled to ? The former Council really gave away the store on this one !!
If the managers position in rwd is covered under civil service, then the right to accrue sick days arises from civil service law, the employee gets 15 days a year, and can accrue them over his or her career. The exit payment is a matter of contract terms. If the managers position is not covered, his compensation is governed directly by the council. It sounds to me like 250 vacation days over a short period of employ is the direct result of the previous councils compensation package.
How about making sure the next person hired for that position gets what most humans would consider a reasonable amount of vacation time, and building from a small number of vacation days over time like anyone else starting a new job? This isn’t the Major Leagues where the really good players might go elsewhere unless piles of money and perks are thrown at them. The job isn’t an easy one to do well, but the salary is AMPLE.
In the days of 10% interest on investments, generous benefits didn’t give away the farm. Now they do. Local, county, state, and federal governments are sinking under the burden.
Being paid for every day of unused vacation or sick time upon departure or retirement on top of a generous salary and pension is an ancient benny that is out of sync with the rest of the working world and has to end. Meanwhile, those who lack such perks keep paying for others’ through property tax and other means.
Stripping those who counted on such benefits throughout their working life would be wrong. However, like many other things that were common but are disappearing, including free medical care for life after retirement, free health care for family members, employer-matched 401(k) contributions, and many pensions altogether, new employees should not be offered this from the start.
Literally millions of dollars floated away from the votes taken by the council last night (9/18). Where is it all going to come from? $50,000 annual property tax on a small house, $100,000 on a big one?
Is that 50 weeks vacation??? I suggest the council address the issue of carry over vacation before their next hire. Corporations usually don’t allow more than a week of carry over vacation that has to be taken by some point the following year or you lose it. Only in government can you accumulate enough vacation to fund early retirement, at the taxpayers expense. What a racket.
is everyone forgetting how much Tenhove was payed , far more then Gabbert
It has to be a typo. It has to be 250 hours of unused vacation time which is 35 days. (quick math $46k x 4 = $183k annual salary. That’s about $800 per day. $800 x 36 = $29k
BTW we know he took vacation. Thats how he spent Hurricane Sandy, remember?
Either way, next contract should not pay unused vacation. give less days and do not allow them to roll over.
Sources tell the Ridgewood blog the Bergen record misquoted, Gabbert was paid for actually 51 vacation days
I think Walsh asked what he was paid because there is still more to come. All because Paul didn’t like the guy.
The unused vacation time would have been paid out even if Gabbert had walked out the door on his own. Is it fair then to include that figure in the “cost to fire Gabbert” number?
Ok so let me get this straight ,the guys gets an “outrageous” pay raise for 12 grand and it costs us 86 grand to fire him ????
good move Aronsohn
this is not right.how did he earn that amount of time in 4 years. no way. what 35 days. the top worker gets 30 and that is after 30 years. what the hell is going on. what about the rest of the top managers what the hell do they get. thats it time to open up all the managers books.